I bet I’m not alone. Between Covid and the social media epidemic and the corporate take-over of so many levels of publishing; good writers, agents, editors and serious writing students stare into that old cliched Abyss. It might stare back, but it sure doesn’t pay for good writing. I confess that I read the New York Times op ed pieces – the Comments section even more voraciously. A lot of the letter writers seem to be most troubled by the chilling question of how to get through the pandemic when their favorite restaurant doesn’t do take-out. Where do those folks get all that money?
Here’s the pitch: Breakthrough Writing needs a funding boost from each of you. I need a boost. I’d get a job, but I’m almost eighty-two, living in a town in which a thirty-year-old is seen as a geezer. I have some physical limitations and an increasingly difficult personality (ask my writing circle writers). I don’t think Target would want me as an X-miss greeter. And, I’ll save my techphobia for another Breakthrough. (I will NEVER ask you for a password.)
An essay collection is hovering. It whispers: “Write about being old. Write about being an old woman in an adolescent culture. Write about being an old woman in a work-world in which decision makers sound like high school girls and think that it’s amazing that you WALK EVERY DAY!!! “GOOD FOR YOU!!!”
Maybe I am writing about being an old woman. Right here. Help me keep at it. If you are willing to send money to Breakthrough, email me at bstarr67@gmail.com and let me know. Or, here is my Paypal (Evil Empire) address: kali114402001@yahoo.com
And, if you too are scrambling to get by, skip the money and send us your story. One paragraph. A dozen. We need to know that you are there. We are there. Send writing to the bstarr address. And, let’s start building guillotines – just in case.
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